A Jam Packed or Jan Patek July

It all started with #7 being pulled for July’s Country Threads Dirty Dozen Challenge which for me was to finish making a Fat Quarter Mixer quilt which I had already cut the patches last year from a stash of Jan Patek prints which I was saving for several years. Somehow I ended up finishing five projects with my much loved Jan Patek (JP) stash and/or UFOs. (I would like to mention for the ease of writing this Post, I’m typing JP fabrics even though some of the fabrics were designed with Linda Brannock up until 2016). I’ve  been collecting JP fabrics since I started quilting over twenty-five years ago and have accumulated a bit of a stash which I still dearly love, Thank You working in a quilt shop days. I’ve now made 17 quilts with JP fabrics and also have quite a few of her books and patterns.

As mentioned earlier, my July project was to finish making a Fat Quarter Mixer quilt measuring 72”x 84” with these JP fabrics, a mixture of her earlier and recent collections. I already had cut patches to make 63 8-1/2”x 12-1/2” blocks which is smaller than the pattern which is 10-1/2”x15-1/2” blocks. My plan changed when I realized that I didn’t want or needed a quilt this size to just sit on my shelf.

Instead, I made two quilts; a 56”X72” lap quilt which is my official #7 finish for the Dirty Dozen Challenge and a 24”x72” chair runner. Both of these will be for my family room and will be perfect for Fall. FYI, this is the fourth time, I have made a Fat Quarter Mixer quilt which I find perfect for the traditional and modern fabrics I have in my stash. I still have four bundles waiting to be made with this pattern. It is a free pattern available from Material Girl Quilts and you can easily modify the block size.

The lap quilt was machine quilt with vertical straight and wavy lines using a Star Thread in Gold. The gold print was found  in the backing vault and I was lucky to also find there the red and tan ticking stripe used for the binding.

The chair runner was machine quilted with straight lines spaced 1” apart using Star Thread in Mother Goose. The same backing and binding used in the lap quilt was also used for the chair runner which makes sense since they are a set. I like to mention that I love how the machine quilting looks with Star Thread which I think is a 30 wt (not an affiliate link) and sadly I can’t seem to find any more colors.

After finishing the first two JP projects, I was tidying up a shelf and found two more JP projects, one forgotten and one on my Dirty Dozen Project List for several years; can you guess which is which?

The chair runner, on the left, measuring 24”x48” was made with leftover patches from the Pinwheel quilt made in 2007. The chair runner was a flimsy made well over ten years ago and I had forgotten making. This happens when it was neatly folded under a piece of JP fabric which has been sitting in a basket for awhile. Since I was putting away my JP fabrics I thought it was time to put away this piece of fabric and voila’, there was the flimsy. I thought it would be nice to finally finish it, so the JP fabric, which was sitting on top of it, was used for the backing and the red and tan ticking stripe was used for the binding. I machine quilted horizontal straight and wavy lines using Star Thread Mother Goose. This chair runner will be for the GP House. I have to mention there was a time when I remember all of Jan Patek fabric lines and now I only can name a few. The red border print for both of these quilts were from Linda Brannock and  her Porch Swing fabric line and I remember buying a fat quarter bundle. A funny side story is I was hemming and hawing about buying it, so I called Good Quilt Friend Carol to talk me out of buying it and her response was I already bought it so then I had to buy the fat quarter bundle too. There is no guilt in buying fabric when a good friend also buys the same fabric with you.

The Telly Star wall hanging was finally finished after I found the block made two years ago when Mary Etherington’s dog Telly passed away in May, 2024. I’ve met this sweet girl several times and thought I make this remembrance of her. The dog was appliqued on a black Buggy Barn block which was sewn wrong. If you’re wondering why this would be considered Jan Patek, the dog is her pattern. I did use several Sandy Gervais prints for the border which I thought would be okay since back in my favorite days of Moda fabrics which were in the late 90’s and early 2000’s (the same time frame as my working in a quilt shop). Sandy Gervais was Moda’s oldest designer and Jan Patek was the second oldest. I’m talking being a Moda designer and not their age now. Also, another side note, is Jan Patek and Mary Etherington are friends and Jan gave Mary the goat who may have been the father  of Susannah, the famous Country Threads goat.

My fifth and last JP project was a surprise UFO and the largest finish of the year so far; I’ve named it the Black Bear Patchwork Blanket which you will read later why this name was chosen. Two years ago, I started making rail fence blocks which ended up 15”x18” (finished)  and I made 36 of them in my favorite color combination of Red, Beige, Black and Sage, the official colors of the GP House. This was on my UFO project list and should have finished it in June but a different project was chosen. My original plan was to make a king size quilt measuring 108”x90” for the GP House and I would QAYG like my Gypsy King quilt. As much as I love quilts on the bed, to me, they are not warm and snuggly like what I call Patchwork Throws when there’s no batting in between and the backing is a plush fabric. I decided a patchwork blanket is what I wanted so the 36 blocks were laid out and sewn together. I was prepared to spend $60-70 for the plush backing but could not find anything I liked; I wanted either red or black. I then had an idea to purchase a $25 king size Toasty Warm Blanket in black from Walmart who used to carry my favorite David Textile chenille plush. The blanket was chenille-like with the lines running horizontal like the rail blocks. I was nervous about doing this since the blanket was supposed to be the same size as the flimsy and centering is a challenge for me.  It turned out to be 2” skinnier because it was hemmed and since this was a blanket and may be covered by the quilt already on the bed, I was prepared to trim the sides of the flimsy after the machine quilting. It was good that the blanket was longer so the corners, which were bulky, were able to be trimmed. Otherwise the hemming on the sides were not bulky and easy to sew the binding over. I did cut my binding strips 3” and used a red JP print which I had yardage in my stash. 

The Black Bear Patchwork Blanket was hung outside the screen room. I am really pleased with how it turned out and I would do this again. I did have some trepidation doing this and I really thought it would not be finished until the 31st but it turned out it was a finish on the 29th. I machine quilted vertical straight lines along each side of the 6” rail blocks with a gold polyester thread. My original plan was to use a black polyester thread but it did not sew well. I’m glad I switched to the gold and wasn’t concerned with how it would look against the black plush.

And here’s the Master Quilter Holder, who would not stand like Vanna White, showing off the beautiful black plush backing. The reason I named it Black Bear because it’s a big blanket, soft and heavy and I called it that after carrying it back and forth from the table to the sewing machine several times. And there was some wrestling or maneuvering during the machine quilting and was glad to have survived. The machine quilting took only around four hours but the pin basting took an entire afternoon and some evening hours. I am looking forward to sleeping under it this Winter, definitely not now with all of the hot weather we’re having.

I still have several JP projects to be made but I think I need to take a break now. I did take some JP scraps to the GP House to make some placemats so they may be made in August when the darling Granddaughter will be babysitting us for a week.

Besides my five JP finishes, I have another finish which was my first one made in July. I needed a Summer door hanging for the GP House and had bundled some Ruby Star Society prints last year.  This door hanging measures 30”x48” and I’ve named it True Concessions because of all of the fun and yummy prints.

True Concessions and the Washi Tape Salute wall hanging finished in March are now hanging in the niche in the dining room at the GP House where the darling Granddaughter spends mucho time watching videos and coloring. I am liking that many of the quilts  this year are being hung or used and not sitting on a shelf.

With six finishes for July, I am ready to call it a month. But, I am enjoying the last day planning my next quilt which will be, I can’t believe I’m typing this during another heat wave,  this year’s darling Granddaughter’s Christmas/Winter Patchwork Blanket. Yes, I ordered more Toasty Warm Blankets, one gray and one pink, and yes, both are for  her. But then, another Fat Quarter Mixer quilt might distract me as well as the new number pulled for August’s Dirty Dozen Challenge.

June-balaya

There was a lot of mish-mash  and jumbling of activities involving celebrations, Mother Nature paying a visit to our house, health appointments for myself, a family wedding and, of course, a whole lot of quilting that I thought June-balaya would be a good name for this Post.

June always involves the celebration of two birthdays, Demando’s and myself and it just warms my heart that we’re both the same age now (wink). And not to be forgotten, are Hubby and my youngest son celebrating Father’s Day. During the first two weeks in June, we experienced heavy storms and tornado warnings and the first of two storms which happened two days straight, we lost our 34 year-old Linden tree which had graced our parkway. So far this year, Illinois had 172 tornadoes and now leads the nation which makes me uncomfortable. As for my health, I had my annual vision exam, a bone density scan and a mammogram and thankfully all went well. To top off my had-to-do list, was renewing my driver’s license, which after my new photo was taken, the very nice security guard walked with me to the exit door when I told him a major crime had just been committed. I’ve been saying that mucho money can be made by charging an extra fee for a glamour or soft focus photo. But no...I have a photo of me looking like an old man.

We traveled to Wisconsin for the wedding of our grandniece who had her ceremony at a farm venue right across the road from her Grandmother’s (Hubby’s sister) house. Less than 24 hours before the ceremony I realized that I had  over fifty leftover signature blocks from my younger son’s wedding thirteen years ago and I contacted my niece (the Bride's mother) to ask her if I could make a wedding quilt with them. She said yes, so  during the two-hour drive, I altered the paper holding the signature blocks. The funny thing about doing this was, the Bride, was the one who handed out these signature papers during the wedding and reception at her cousin’s wedding. I jokingly asked her if she would have time to re-assume this duty but she was a little preoccupied so her future sister-in-law and my hubby did a great job passing and collecting them. Once the newlyweds are finished building their future home, we will decide  on whether a large quilt or smaller wallhangings will be made.

And finally, to the quilty portion of this Post. I had two quilts to finish and  a Post to write on June 15th for the Lyra QAL hosted by Sandra, mmm Quilts and another Post revealing my Secret Sewing project from last year which was my quilt made from Kelly Young’s 12 Days of Christmas Quilt Block Sampler Book released on June 16th. By then, I was ready to call it a month but then there were two weeks still remaining.

I thought I should finish my #11 of Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which was the flimsy I made in 2024 after I had finished my Spectacle Square-tangle Quilt. For both of these quilts, I used the Easy Bricks pattern designed by Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter which is a great pattern for a layer cake.

I enjoyed making the Spectacle Square-tangle quilt so much that I wanted to make the pattern again using a Whisper by Windham Fabrics layer cake which I had in my stash for several years along with other fabrics which went well with it. I had plans to make a queen size quilt but decided to make a 66”x88” flimsy instead. Unfortunately, straight-line machine quilting did not go as smooth as I wanted and I ended up having to rip out eight lines of machine quilting because I didn’t realize the backing was scrunching up. This has sworn me off of making large quilts for awhile but at least I was able to use my CT Essential Thread in Blush. I do like this quilt which I’ve named Birdsong though Bird Brain came to mind. I was tempted to make a simple one-patch Patchwork Throw with all of the leftover fabrics remaining because I may need a new one for traveling this September and I found the perfect plush in my stash, but I didn’t.

Instead, I decided to finally finish the quilting for my Peace Quilt which I started two month earlier. I made this 16” x 26” flimsy twenty years ago before going back to work full-time. During this time, I was making these small quilts which I call Patchbox quilts because I was making them with large squares of novelty prints. The Peace hands were fussy cut and then fused to two different black prints. My plan was to hand quilt this but after the Peace hands were  done I decided to machine-quilt the rest. It has laid on my table in front of my sewing machine when I finally realized that all I had to do was straight line quilting, grid style using a jewel tone variegated Star Thread. While machine quilting, I had another realization that this quilt needed to be finished, because……

I needed another quilt to hang on the front hallway door next to the gaMMMa galaxy quilt because the one I had hanging next to it did not complement it as much as the Peace quilt. I wonder if Eunice, my Studio Tormentor who lives inside my head and tells me what I should be finishing was guiding me. This time, it was most welcomed. Both of these quilts one days will be heading to the darling granddaugher’s bedroom at the GP House. I plan to hang the Peace Quilt outside her door as a reminder that her father when he was only in first or second grade, hung a handmade sign outside his bedroom door with a drawn peace sign and the printed words “Peace in Mike’s Room”. Hubby and I both thought what could have prompted him at such a young age to do this and realized he didn’t like our yelling at Demando to do his homework among other things.

There were still a few days left before leaving for the GP House for the weekend and thought the Rainbow House Flimsy would be a quick finish. While looking for background info on the Birdsong quilt, I saw that this flimsy was made in 2024 also and that it would be good to finally finish two 2024 flimsies.

The only problem I had was  I wanted to use the stripe backing horizontally which ran along the selvedge and would be too short for the 39”x45”flimsy by several inches. I added strips, of a polkadot print found in the scrap box, to the top and bottom. Since I already had the variegated thread still on my sewing machine, I used that to machine quilt with straight and wavy lines. The black print with teeny multi color dots was found in the stash. I’m glad the Rainbow House quilt was a finally finish because it reminded how much I love this rail pattern which uses only six fat quarters. I need to make some small quilts for the darling Granddaughter’s classroom by Fall and this would be a great pattern since it sew quick and very cute with the right fabrics which I’m sure I have in my stash. I will confess that I want to keep Rainbow House quilt because I love the prints so much but maybe will be ready to give it up by Fall.

Last but not least, all during June in the late evening while watching reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore TV Series on YouTube, I was handing piecing the Smitten Says blocks which I started planning on the last days of May. Fabric patches were cut for appoximately 500 diamonds and then basted to make 177 5”x6” hexagons. Originally I was going to use a combination of diamonds and equilateral triangles (like the Simple Smitten quilt) to make the hexagons but decided to use all diamonds instead.  All of the hexagons are now sewn and ready to be laid up on the design board. Then, the  next step is to sew the hexagons together in rows which I definitely will have to do on the big counter high kitchen table at home and, of course, watching more Mary Tyler Moore episodes which ran for seven years. The Smitten Says hexagons were supposed to be my road trip project for our upcoming September trip but I really enjoy EPPs now and was missing it after my Simple Smitten quilt was finished. I already have a new EPP project in mind for the road trip and can start cutting the fabric and paper pieces soon.

I’m thinking I should take it easy in July but July-balaya wouldn’t be a bad Post title and it’s also fun to say.  Have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July holiday.

12 Days of Christmas Quilt Block Sampler Book Release

Today is the release of Kelly Young, My Quilt Infatuation, latest book 12 Days of Christmas Quilt Block Sampler: Perfectly Pieced Holiday Design” which provides step-by-step instructions for 12 festive blocks inspired by the classic Christmas Carol. I was excited when I read her Posts last year showing her quilt, working on the pattern and the plan to do a QAL starting in July. I emailed Kelly to let her know how wonderful her quilt was  and I was planning to participate in the QAL. The darling Granddaughter loves singing the 12 Days of Christmas song all year and I knew she would love the quilt for Christmas. However, plans changed when the book publisher agreed that Kelly’s wonderful pattern should not be a stand alone pattern but a book instead. This meant that the pattern and QAL would be delayed until this year.

Kelly knowing that I wanted to make the 12 Day of Christmas quilt to give the darling Granddaughter for Christmas, kindly gave me a draft of her pattern with the condition that I would keep it a secret and not post pics of my quilt until her book was released. This was the Secret Sewing Project I was posting about last September and would be revealed in May/June.

TaDa! Here is my big reveal! When I was discussing this Post with Kelly and asking her how I should explain receiving the pattern, she suggested that I say that I was asked to be a “Pattern Tester”. I mentioned that this may be hard to believe by those who have read my Posts and there would be a possibility that Sandra/mmm quilts would be spitting out her coffee as she reads this. However, I considered myself as taking a pattern test and followed Kelly’s instructions completely. Does my Dancing Lady look like she’s doing the Can-Can?

These are the fabrics I pulled from my stash which were: Basic Grey Grunge, Vanessa Christensen’s Confetti Ombre, Zen Chic Spotted Zebra, Jennifer Sampou Chalk, Timeless Treasure Gray Grid, Figo/Libs Elliott Workshop, Robin Pickens Thatch and Leanne Andersen Houndstooth. I used two different white Grunge prints for the background: Seeing Stars for the large areas and a Basic for the smaller areas.

As with the other books and patterns by Kelly, she writes great detailed instructions and provides wonderful illustrations for the  twelve blocks. I thought I shared four of the blocks and if you know me, a fan of the big patches, I really enjoyed making all of the blocks, even though I worked on a tight schedule of twenty days. Kelly offers great tips and hints for sewing the blocks (perfection is not required but it sure does look nice--these are my words). My favorite of all, a big game changer for me, was to use diagonal seam tape (which I had an unused roll of it stashed in my drawer for several years) to sew the many connecting corners. If I had a favorite block, it would be #10 Leaping Lord whom I’ve named Jethro but Gaston would have also been a good name too.

Kelly did an amazing job on machine quilting her quilt so I’m embarrassed to show that I only machine quilted horizontal wavy lines approximately 2” apart. The reason for using Basic Grey Grunge Seeing Stars fabric for the background and embroidering many gold stars throughout the quilt was to make it look more interesting. The same dark green Grunge used for the numbers was also used for the binding.

I wished I had a video of when the darling Granddaughter first saw her 12 Days of Christmas quilt. She had such a smug smile suggesting she knew Grandmin would make her this and knowing it was just for her. Her father, my youngest son, was so excited, took many pics and was given very ample warning not to post or share any photos. The quilt hung at the GP house until early January when it was taken down when the darling Granddaughter wasn’t around and brought back to our house for safekeeping. Would you believe the darling Granddaughter started singing the 12 Days of Christmas song on April 15th. I’m pretty sure her quilt will be hung up right after Halloween. BTW, this photo collage shows the first Kelly Young pattern I made, Purse Strings quilt 2013 and the latest; both quilts, as well as several other quilts made with Kelly's patterns, were bequeathed to her.

It should be no surprise that I am a big fan and follower of Kelly and have made  sixteen quilts from nine of her patterns; six of them with her Unruly pattern, my very favorite. I have all of her books and have participated in many of her past NTT Linky parties. Her latest 12 Days of Christmas Quilt Block Sampler book is an absolute gem. In addition to her patterns, there are some interesting tidbits that I never knew about the song. Even though my quilt is made, there are several blocks I would make again and would be perfect as a stand alone for wall quilt or pillows or combining several blocks to make a small wallhanging. My Grandniece just got married this weekend and I’m thinking of combining the Dancing Lady, Turtle Doves and Leaping Lord blocks to make a special First Christmas wallhanging. Also, there is a bonus Father Christmas pillow pattern which I definitely will be making. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Kelly's Post. Her book is available now at her Etsy Shop as well as Amazon and any other distributors where you purchase your books (not an affiliate link).

And lastly, a very big Thank You to Kelly for trusting and allowing me to make my quilt last year, it was very appreciated and much loved.  I hope readers will see that I can follow a quilt pattern and keep a secret.

Celebrating a Famous Canadian: Lyra QAL Parade

This is the tenth time I have participated in this annual celebration which happens around the same as Demando and my birthdays along as Fathers Day for hubby and my youngest son who is the the darling Granddaughter’s Daddy. Sandra, mmm quilts, the host extraordinaire and designer of the wonderful QAL patterns, really outdid herself with this year’s Lyra pattern. There are three versions; I had to make version I, (the official QAL quilt) which I’ve named gaMMMa Galaxy and version II (the extra quilt) Artemis in coMMMemoration of the recent Moon Mission which captivated our attention and brought back old memories of watching past space explorations at home and at school. My quilts this year, versus last year’s, does look like the Lyra pattern, but with a slight change.

Back in early April, Sandra had sent her mmminion/mmmuddle or pattern testers, the Lyra pattern; some of us tested and you know who just looked at the pattern and planned an alternative way to make it. Sandra, in her effeminate “mmmickedness” sensed I was up to something and emailed me. Along with an annual celebration, I do an annual confessional with Sandra as to how I was not going to follow her pattern and keeping “mmmum”. As in the past, Sandra approved.

Here is my confession; my quilts are smaller than the Lyra pattern because I used my die-cutter which made the patches 4”(f) rather than 5” like the pattern so my quilts measure 32” square and not 40” square. The Kite shape (left) bought back memories of Sandra’s first QAL, Freefall, which I couldn’t print the foundation pieces and had to draw my own. Was this a bad mmmemory?

Only five fabrics for the Lyra pattern were needed but gaMMMa galaxy uses twelve. While I trying to choose which color I wanted for the spiky star points, I realized I had all of the colors in the same print which were in the Allison Glass Star print to make the ombré points. Would you believe over the course of several days I finally came up with this combination and was once finalized after I found the multi-color grid fabric in the backing vault. It may have taken awhile but I was really happy that all of these prints, especially the lights, were found in various areas of the studio.

To make assembling the blocks easier, I made a diagram showing which color/print went where and then sewed it together row by row.

I thought my favorite quadrant quilting wasn’t going to work but it did. I used #2600 White Dove Auril thread for both the top and bottom and like using this color since it blends well with bright multi-color prints. The backing is a white grunge, which I won’t show you, and the binding is the multi-color grid print. I am liking 32” square quilts as I can hang them on the inside of the front doors and if the right colors, I have the perfect space in the family room. For now, gaMMMa galaxy is hanging on the front door but eventually will hang in the darling Granddaughter’s bedroom along with Star Shine Prism Break Quilt which was Sandra’s Orinoco Flow pattern.

While I was sewing gaMMMa galaxy, Sandra came out with version II of the Lyra pattern and I immediately thought it was the perfect pattern to commemorate the Artemis Moon Mission. Sandra did do version III which may be her official pattern for Artemis but I had already die-cut the patches for version II. I’ve always said that it’s easy for me to pull 10+ fabrics for a quilt, but when it’s less than ten, it takes forever because when there’s only a few, they have to click. Once the Art Gallery low volume print was chosen for the Moon, I chose two prints from the Carrie Bloomston’s  Story and Dreamer collection and the red is from Matisse/The Women fabric line by Exclusively Quilters.

Sadly, the two prints from the Carrie Bloomston stash was used up in Artemis but was worth it. I ended up not having enough of the teal print and had to substitute another similar print for some of the  connecting corners in the square in square units. This gave me a new personal quilting rule that if you can’t see the difference from the moon, then it’s okay to substitute. Would you believe, I had more trouble with this quilt in sewing the rows together. I kept flipping the patches so they were pointing wrong; I did this at least five times.

The Moon fabric was important to make up for my lackluster quilting. Again, I did quadrant quilting with CT Essential Thread #21160 Parchment. I’m being lazy with this Post as I am not showing you the backing  which is just a low volume print found in the stash. The dark blue Story print was used for the binding which I am so thankful I had just enough. Artemis is now hanging in the family room on the wall just perfect for a 32” square quilt.

Isn’t it amazing that the same pattern made two different quilts just by fabric placement. I’m also proud of the fact that I did sew all of the square in the square blocks (except one) which I do not like sewing and sadly did not have a die in the right side. 

In celebration of Sandra’s Tenth QAL to Celebrate a Famous Canadian, I have my annual collage commemorating this:

And also a collage of the mmmany mmmerry mmmakes made through these same years…

And one more since it involved Sandra sending me some of the fabrics and having me purchase the backing from a friend who was destashing. I’ve named this quilt Oh Sanada and was given to her daughter to give to a friend who was undergoing medical treatment.

If you’re counting all of the mmmerry mmmakes, the total is 24. 

I always say that each mmmake gives me a punch onmy GET BELLA card and I’m thinking #25 should give me a nice 8”x10” glossy, pawed by her sweetness. What do you think? Sandra already sent me some of Bella’s fur.

Be sure to visit to see the other Lyra QAL quilts. I would not be surprise if the other participants mention how much they enjoyed this pattern.

I’m writing this Post a week before the Parade as I will traveling back from the GP House and hopefully it will post on the 15th.  And I will have another Post tomorrow which will reveal last year’s secret sewing project and proof that I can follow a pattern. You can read it Here.

May’s Makes

Before the start of May, I already had plans to work on two of the above finishes and it was serendipitous when the project number for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge was announced since I already began working on it. As for the other two, I’ll provide the details later in this Post which give you an idea why these Finally Finishes gave me a mixed bag of feelings.

The first quilt, American Jane Wheels, is the one Finally Finished which has the most “splaining” was started in 2014 and was my #4 for the UFO Challenge. I saw a Wheel Block on Pinterest and thought this would be a good road project since I just retired and planning to do a lot of traveling by car. My favorite road project is EPP and maybe knitting. At that time, I had a lot of American Jane fabrics in my stash which weren’t being used so I thought these fabrics would be perfect. I first purchased a package of Coffin paper pieces which I thought were more interesting than Dresden Plate blades and ended up making my own from index cards which were the same size and just needed the corners trimmed. My plan for this quilt was to make it with all wheels but I must have lost interest soon after I made only five Wheels which measure approximately 15”.

This project has been on my UFO lists for the past several years; the Wheels have been stored in a new pizza box carton which a friend purchased from a restaurant supply store on top of a shelf marked as “AJ Wheels”. It bugged me every time I passed under it which would be every time I was in my studio and let’s say the Studio Squirrels finally threw it down. I hated to waste the Wheels and finally decided on a  quick and easy finish just using four out of the five wheels appliquéd on a plain square and cutting 3.5” squares from the American Jane stash for the alternate block.

As simple as this quilt looks, there was a lot of preparation for the appliquéd blocks which is why I started working on this quilt before it was announced as the one I would work on in May. First, I had to remove all of the paper pieces from the five Wheels. Then I had to decide on how to make the circle for the center in which I made a simple block with a center square which would fit underneath the Wheels and then appliqué was ready to sew. BTW, this is the one block that I did not use for the quilt. At first, my intention was to trim these squares down to 18” but didn’t like the empty areas and decided to trim them down to 15” to make a 45” square quilt instead. Also in my plan, was to use all five Wheels, with one being in the center but thought I wanted this quilt to be easy machine quilting and didn’t want to machine quilt over the appliquéd blocks so four Wheels are only on the outside edges.

For the centers of the Wheels and the binding, I used a recently purchased yard of a current American Jane print navy blue plaid and glad I had it in my stash to finish this quilt. I like to mention that one of the problems with making 45” square quilt is having to make the backing which is a wee bit larger than 44/45” width of fabric. I used a blue Debbie Mumm print from the backing vault along with a leftover strip from the American Jane scraps. I have mixed feelings about this quilt as to the machine quilting and whether I should have not trimmed the appliquéd blocks to 15” as it looks a little too close to the alternate blocks. For now it’s a wall hanging but later can be a table topper or maybe a floor quilt once the newness wears away. I am just glad that there is no more danger of a pizza box being thrown at me and I have a new road project with the leftover Coffin paper pieces; I think there maybe at least a hundred. Coincidentally, before I found the leftover pieces, I saw a quilt on Pinterest using these pieces and didn’t realize I had the makings. It seems like an American Jane year with the Wheels quilt being the third quilt made this year with her fabrics. No worries about running out of American Jane fabrics because several years ago, Mary Etherington gifted me with all of her leftover American Jane fabrics, some of which appears in the alternative blocks.

Speaking of Mary, I had plans to finally finish my Fresh Air quilt; the flimsie was made almost a year ago. The reason why the American Jane Wheel Quilt wasn’t made a 54” square to hang in the Kitchen dining area because I wanted Fresh Air to a hang there instead.

A little background on my Fresh Air quilt which is a pattern from Mary Etherington and ConnieTesene’s Fresh Start Quilt book published in 2022. I briefly mentioned the Flimsy in this Post and can now provide a few more details. Twenty-five pieced blocks were made using mostly Amanda Herring’s Ardently Austen fabric line and Brenda Ratlif’s One Room Schoolhouse and Pie-Making Day fabric lines along with various low volume prints from my stash. I pre-cut all of the blocks and packaged them individually. It was my favorite flimsy finish from June/2025 and I was so looking forward to quilting it with straight horizontal lines like Mary did.

My Fresh Air quilt is my saddest finish for May as the machine quilting did not go as planned. I ended up machine quilting wavey horizontal lines and had several problems doing this for reasons entirely my fault, I forgot to check the bobbin tension and remove the walking foot guide once I decided not to sew horizontal straight lines. This caused some distortion and  I ended up removing twenty-five lines of machine quilting but should have removed all of them. Lesson learned; you may not want to machine quilt horizontal lines if the quilt has sashing and just stop once a problem is first notices as it doesn’t quilt away. I ended up purchasing a new walking foot after this quilt was finished. I did hang it up even though I was sad looking at it first but  now have accepted the wonkiness. It’s what a call an “Izzy”, it is what it is and can make me happy or sad. My Fresh Air quilt measures 64” and like the American Jane Wheels quilt may someday grace the floor or ground.

To save the month of May’s mixed feelings was the unexpected Finally Finished of my Simple Smitten quilt which were leftover paper pieces of my Smitten Quilt started and finished in 2017. I started sewing the leftover papers as a road project for our Yosemite vacation in September, 2024 and made only a few blocks. I resumed this project in March of this year, pieced thirty-two blocks and fourteen side blocks and finished the flimsy several weeks ago. I can’t believe I made this within two months and it just proves that I watch a lot of TV or worked on it while at the GP House.

My plan for Simple Smitten was as the name suggested, to make a simpler version of Smitten with just simple hexagon blocks made with diamonds and equilateral triangle and a scrap vortex layout. If I wasn’t set on naming this quilt Simple Smitten, Smitten Skelter would have been  appropriate  The other blocks were leftovers from Smitten. I did not want to make another Smitten quilt which is what I call fancy with the hand quilting but a functional quilt with vertical machine quilting and I am so glad this went as planned.

I knew I could make Simple Smitten a Finally Finish sooner than later with finding the perfect backing of a red/dark pink and navy blue ticking stripe in the backing vault. Better yet, was finding the navy dot print used for the binding in the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society stash. Vertical straight line machine  quilting, 1” apart with an Aurifil silver thread went smooth, especially with the brand new walking foot. Simple Smitten measures 52” x 76”, a nice size throw to snuggle with no worries.

I have to show the leftover block from the Smitten quilt which I thought best represented my long friendship with good Quilt Friend Carol and thought of making a small wall hanging commemorating this but instead used it in Simple Smitten. Would you believe in no less than 48 hours after I put away the paper pieces and fabrics, I am starting another quilt which I’m calling Smitten Says. I will be using some of the leftover diamond pieces from Simple Smitten and maybe making only hexagon blocks using three diamonds. I am cutting new Damond patches from Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society scraps. I’ve grown fond of EPP and hand piecing while watching TV plus we’ll be on a road trip in September.

All of the three quilts were finished with still ten days remaining in May and I thought I could  sewqueeze another Finally Finished and made the ginormous backing but then decided to take it easy since I had to prepare for leaving to the GP House. I know upon my return I have to get ready for the mmm quilts Lyra QAL parade and need to finish my two Lyra Quilts. I have one flimsy done and the second one, which is Lyra pattern #2 and commemorates Artemis Moon Mission still needed to be sewn. I decided it would be less stressful if the flimsy was finished before I left. I just love this version and look forward to finishing it. I’m going to be busy in June with my upcoming Parade Post plus the revealing of last year’s secret sewing project.

I’m ready to call May a month now with a FB PosI saw: “I just realized why this month is called May; It may rain, it my snow, it may be 70 degrees  or it may be 20 degrees.”  I still haven’t switched over to my Spring/Summer bed quilts and decor yet. Maybe I can finally switch over when we return from the GP house; it’ll be June and this is the longest I ever had to wait for the warm weather to arrive.